Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or content from the TV series the 100. I did make up this story though.
As the story progresses there will be descriptions of people falling in love with each other, and doing things that people do when they are in love. These people will be of the same gender. If that gets you in trouble with the law where you live, or if it's not your cup of tea, you might wanna look elsewhere for entertainment.
Author's note: Hey! Just putting this out there to see if you might be interested. The first thing I ever published on here, so bear with me, I'm still learning.
Clarke Griffin wiped the sweat of her brow using the dusty sleave of her shirt. Taking a few deep gulps from the canteen in her hand, she looked over at her colleague and best friend, giving her an exasperated look.
"Raven, we have been walking for hours! Are you sure that 'source' of yours was telling the truth?"
"Griffin, do you really doubt my people skills? Sibusiso haven´t let me down yet. Of course, his directions tend to be somewhat… creative, but we should be getting close once we get over this hill"
Clarke only sighed, shouldered her backpack again and once again wiped her brow, cursing the African sun and the heat and those damned poachers.
Raven had gotten a tip from one of her trusted sources yesterday that another Rhino had been found deep in the Kruger National Park, dead and with its horn removed. By no means a new thing, but the source, Sibusiso, had said that a calf had been spotted nearby, and it seemed the dead rhino was its mother. The calf had appeared wounded. Knowing that a wounded rhino calf could not manage long in the harsh South African bush, Clarke and Raven had set out to locate the animal so they could radio to their friends back at the base and get them to come do a pickup with the helicopter. They needed to move in on foot first, so that they could get a shot in with the tranquilizer-gun before the rhino cub heard the helicopter and ran off in a fright.
The only problem was that Sibusiso tended to…downplay the distances a bit. "Just over that hill, and then straight for a while" had turned out to mean a four hours walk in the scorching heat through dense bush vegetation. No matter, it was nothing new to the two women, they would walk until they found the calf.
Raven removed a tranquilizer-gun from her pack, and loaded it up with a dart. She then shouldered her backpack, rested the weapon across her shoulders and set off after Clarke up the steep hill. She was just about to call something out to her best friend when the blonde woman stopped dead in her tracks and crouched down, signalling to Raven with her right hand. Raven immediately mirrored Clarke, crouching down and slowly approaching the top of the slope. Once there, she was met with a heartbreaking sight; the rhino calf was nestled against its dead mother, just barely moving its head from time to time. It probably hadn´t gotten any food or water for days, and was close to following it´s mother in death.
Raven slowly lifted her gun, took aim and pulled the trigger. The dart hit the rhino cub squarely in the shoulder, the cub flew up in a fright, stumbled a few steps and then fell over, heavily sedated.
Clarke wasted no time in getting up and approaching the knocked-out animal, checking it for wounds and trying to assess how badly it was hurt. Raven stayed back, removing a satelite phone from her pack.
"Hey Bell, we found it… yeah, it´s cool, we got it down cleanly". She looked at her GPS- tracker and read off the coordinates, then ended the call and walked over to her friend.
Carke looked up when hearing her friend's footsteps, looking at Raven through tearful eyes. "This never gets any easier".
Together, they wrapped the rhino cub into a harness, readying it for the helicopter-ride. Then they took pictures of the killed mother and marked the spot on a map.
As Clarke measured the dead animal's length and size, Raven walked in a wide circle around the area. After a while, she let out a small cry of victory, bent down and picked up something small and shiny from the ground. Securing the empty bulletcasing in a pouch at her belt, she returned to Clarke and as she approached, they both looked up at the arriving helicopter.
"WOODS!"
The voice thundered through the open office-landscape. A typical 16th floor in a typical New York skyscraper. Lexa looked up from her laptop. Years of working under the Indra Porter had taught her that her bosses exclamations were not necessarily due to anything bad, but they definitely would turn that way if ignored even for a second. So Lexa swiftly stood up from her seat and made her way to Indras office.
"Ms. Porter"
Lexa stepped into Indras office, slightly out of breath.
"Lexa Woods", Indras voice thundered, "how many times have I told you to call me Indra?"
It was no secret among the staff of Polis magazine that Lexa Woods was pointed out by the Indra Porter herself to take over the reins once she retired. Lexa herself was secretly sure she would never manage to live up to the expectations of coming after the Indra Porter, but for now she kept her mouth shut and enjoyed her time as head of the Travel and Adventure section of Polis.
Lexa merely nodded, both women knowing that Lexa Woods would call Ms. Porter "Indra" just as soon as pigs started floating by outside her 16th floor window.
"I have an assignment", Indra said. Lexa looked up, letting Indra know she was listening.
"It is a piece on an organisation working on saving rhinos from poachers in South Africa. Very in-the-time stuff. This organisation is absolutely instrumental to saving the rhino population, but they have never allowed the media in before. They are going to let us do a one month immersive study where one of our people get to live with them in their camp and follow the work. Huge opportunity"
Lexa nodded along as Indra spoke. When the woman stopped, she straightened her back slightly and smiled as to confirm that she understood the importance.
"Sounds great Ms. Porter. Who do you suggest we send, and for when should we make the arrangements?"
Indra´s eyed gleamed, and a small smile tugged at her lips
"Your flight leaves at 5 am tomorrow".